Bicyclist on way to job interview struck, killed by beer truck

A woman riding her bicycle to a job interview was killed when her bicycle was hit by a beer truck at Beville Road and U.S. 1 in Daytona Beach about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

LYDA LONGASTAFF WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH -- Kelley Davis was intent on riding her bicycle to a job interview Tuesday morning despite her sister's offer to give her a ride to the highly anticipated appointment. Davis, the 32-year-old mother of a 10-year-old boy, told her sibling she wanted to lose weight and riding the bike would give her the exercise she wanted. Tuesday afternoon as she held her newborn daughter, Davis' sister Karen Knight cried inconsolably as she stood just a few feet from where Davis had just been killed by a large beer truck at Beville Road and South Ridgewood Avenue. Police said Davis was heading east on Beville and crossed into the path of the Bud Light rig driven by 35-year-old Michael Cotton. “She disregarded the truck,” said Daytona Beach police Lt. Major Garvin. “The truck driver had the green light.” While the preliminary investigation shows Cotton was not at fault, he was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center to have his blood drawn, as is routine in fatal crashes, Garvin said. “He was very distraught,” Garvin said of Cotton. Davis is the fourth bicyclist killed this year in Volusia County while Flagler County has had one death so far. And a bicyclist in Flagler County was critically injured Monday morning. Terrance J. Conley, 61, was riding east on Palm Coast Parkway shortly before 8 a.m. Monday when he was hit at the intersection of Florida Park Drive in Palm Coast, a report states. He was airlifted to Halifax Health Medical Center in critical condition, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The driver, Marquis T. Norwood, 19, was also traveling east and did not see Conley, according to the report. Norwood drove away and the Dodge Stratus she had been driving was later found in the parking lot of Daytona State College. Charges are pending against Norwood, the report states. James Harding, 32, was the first bicyclist killed this year in Volusia or Flagler counties. According to the FHP, Harding was struck by a car on U.S. 1 north of Ormond Beach on Jan. 3. Frederick J. Martinez, 51, of Flagler Beach, was killed March 19 as he rode his bicycle in a bike lane on State Road 100 about a mile east of Interstate 95. Martinez was struck by a van, FHP said. The van's driver said he sneezed and struck the bicyclist, the FHP said. Volusia and Flagler counties saw a drop in fatal bicycle accidents in 2012. Preliminary estimates show three fatalities last year, down from eight the previous year. And over the long run, studies show bicycling has been getting safer nationally over the past decade. In 2012, Volusia County recorded 177 bicycle-related accidents that left three people dead and 148 people injured, Florida Highway Patrol statistics show. The FHP numbers come from a new pilot reporting program, so no comparable number is available for 2011. Bicycling accidents are not just a local problem though. An Alliance for Bicycling and Walking report last year looked at three years of bicycle fatalities and ranked Florida as the most dangerous state and Jacksonville the second-most dangerous city in the United States for cyclists. In 2011, the most recent year statewide figures are available, Volusia ranked 11th highest in the state with 1.21 fatalities per 100,000 people. Flagler had 2.05 fatalities per 100,000 people, the fifth-highest in the state. (Flagler's deaths dropped from two in 2011 to none in 2012, according to the preliminary figures.) As police directed traffic through the busy intersection and waited for the Medical Examiner's office to arrive to take Davis' body, Knight sat on a bench outside a Walgreens at the corner bemoaning the fact that her older sister would never get to know Knight's baby daughter. Knight said she and Davis were living together so they could help each other out financially. She said she believes her sister was interviewing for a server's job at Joe's Crab Shack on the Daytona Beach Pier. Knight said the sisters had never really known their parents well and “we were all each other had.” “I want everybody to know that she was a wonderful person,” Knight said through tears. “She would ride her bicycle everywhere looking for a job.”